An improvement in the manufacturing of the rails for rail-roads, was patented by Sharman Converse, late of New York, but now of London, on the 29th of September, 1832, a description of which is given in the Repertory, for April 1833. The explanation is, however, not very clear; all that we can gather from it being, that the rails are to be connected and sustained longitudinally, by a species of trussing with wrought-iron rods, similar to that employed in trussing girders.
In October, 1832, Mr. Redmund, of the City Road, patented a boiler, especially designed for locomotive uses. It consists of a series of parallel vertical chambers with corrugated sides, for the purpose of extending the heating surface, and accelerating the production of steam in a compact apparatus. The principal difference between it and Mr. Hancock's, is in the circumstance of the corrugation. Mr. Redmund, shortly after the grant of his patent, constructed a very elegant steam carriage, which is represented in the subjoined cut. The wheels, it will be observed, are of a peculiar kind, and are, we are informed, the subject of a distinct patent ; our space will not permit us here to describe them. The arrangement and position of the chief part of the propelling mechanism is the same as Hancock's. The guiding is effected by reins in a similar manner to those of horses, each rein operating separately through the medium of levers in turning the fore wheels of the carriage to the right or left; and to facilitate this motion, each wheel revolves on a distinct axle supported in a frame that turns horizontally upon a pivot, after the manner of Ackerman's patent of 1816.
The great improvement in the construction of iron rails introduced by Mr. Birkinshaw in 1819, and described by us at page 43, ha. stood the test of experience, and are used now in nearly the same state as he left them. Malleable iron was thus substituted for cast, and at a cheaper rate. Heretofore the chairs into which the rails are fitted have been made of cast iron, probably on the supposition that there was no other mode of bestowing upon them their varied form, and massive parts, at a moderate cost ; and the consequences of this notion may be witnessed in the thousands of broken chains which may be found along any of the considerable lines of railroad now being laid down. It is therefore with much satisfaction that we peruse the specification of the patent granted to Mr. Harry Scrivenor, of New Broad-street, dated November 8, I832 ; the object of which is to construct the chairs and pedestals of railways of wrought iron, arid caiefiv by means of the rolling process.
In the preceding Fig. 1, a 6 represent a pair of cast-iron rolls designed for this object, and put in motion by the usual mechanism employed in iron-works. it will be observed that the series of grooves or indentations in their peripheries correspond with the several shapes which the metal is intended to take in its progress through these rollers, until it at length attains the exact shape required to form the chairs or pedestals. Thus, for example, the grooves ate d must be adapted to receive an ordinary short thick bar of wrought iron, about two feet long, and six inches square, properly heated for rolling. The bar is first passed through the rollers at c d, which causes it to assume the shape shown at ,. It is then passed in succession through the other grooves on the rollers at k k, 11, no es, a n, whereby it successively takes the form shown at e f A. Having thus obtained a long bar of iron of the sectional form shown at n, it is next cut into lengths for chairs, which is effected by the mill shears shown at Fig. 2, which are worked by the engine. These shears are provided with steel jaws to receive the chair as shown at r w, in order that in cutting off the chair it may not be forced out of shape. The opening between the cheeks of the chair for the reception of the rail are at present left parallel ; the next process is there fore to give these parts a more suitable form for holding down the rail. This is effected by mating the chair red hot, and Fleeing idirde the recess a mandril of the required shape, with which it is again passed through another pair of rolls shown in the annexed Fig, 3 ; by these the recess is impressed with the required form to adapt it for receiving the intended keys.
The last invention of the celebrated Richard Trevithick, of Camborne, in Cornwall, for which he took a patent on the 19th March, 1833, was for improvements in the steam-engine, and in their application to navigation and locomo tion. The first of these improvements consisted in interposing between the boiler and the work ing cylinder, in a situation to be strongly heated, a long pipe, formed of a compact series of curved pipes, in which the steam, after it has left the boiler, passes with great velocity, and is further expanded in volume before it enters the cylinder. And in order still further to augment this volume of steam, he placed the working cylinder within a case constituting a part of the chimney, where the cylinder was kept hotter than the steam employed in it, and by these means employed the otherwise waste heat in augmenting the power of the engine.